Mobile home fire in Morton claims one life Wednesday morning

A fire at a mobile home park claimed one life Wednesday morning. Firefighters were called about 8:15 a.m. to 435 White Oak Drive in Oak Lawn Mobile Estates and encountered a blaze too intense to search the structure, said Morton Fire Chief Joe Kelley. "We were able to g...

By MICHAEL SMOTHERS

Journal Star

By MICHAEL SMOTHERS

Posted Oct. 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 30, 2013 at 5:02 PM

By MICHAEL SMOTHERS

Posted Oct. 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 30, 2013 at 5:02 PM

MORTON

Smoke and flames apparently trapped an elderly man and thwarted rescue attempts by a neighbor and firefighters at his mobile home on the city’s far south side Wednesday morning.

Aaron Boyd Ishmael, 93, died in his home at 435 White Oak Drive of apparent smoke inhalation, an autopsy revealed.

The blaze quickly gutted his residence after it broke out at about 8 a.m. Firefighters doused it within 15 minutes but could not enter the home during their battle.

Neighbors know each other well in tidy Oak Lawn Mobile Estates just off Muller Road, said Kay Williams, who lives next door to Ishmael. He remained “very active” after his wife’s recent death, she said.

“He would bring me gladiolas,” Williams said. “He was proud of his glads.” “He will be missed,” she said.

Wednesday was Ishmael’s regular “pool day,” when the man who went by his middle name of Boyd joined fellow Caterpillar Inc. retirees for billiards at the Fondulac Park District’s headquarters in East Peoria, said Williams and fellow neighbor Jim Parvin.

One neighbor said he thought he heard Ishmael inside, “trying to say something.” Parvin, 70, said he ran to Ishmael’s front door and opened it.

“I hoped he was near the door and I could pull him out,” he said. “The smoke was so heavy, it hit me in the face.”

Flames had already breached the home’s walls when firefighters from Morton and East Peoria arrived moments later, Kelley said. As they attacked the fire with three hose lines, a Morton firefighter “tried to get close” and again opened the trailer’s door, he said. The heat he met caused minor burns “through his coat” and partially melted his helmet, but the firefighter did not require hospital treatment, Kelley said.

Williams said Ishmael regularly rose at about 5 a.m. “He would cook breakfast, then take a nap.” She speculated he may have neglected to turn his stove off in that routine.

The fire, however, appeared to have started near the front of the trailer home, Kelley said. “Nearly everything inside was burning,” he said.

Ishmael tended well to his property. “He’d be up on a ladder cleaning his gutters,” Parvin said. His home’s interior, however, “was a clutter,” Williams said.

An investigator from the state fire marshal’s office arrived shortly after the fire was quelled to begin searching for its cause.